Sun Still Dared To Shine, By Jabtnik

Of all the atrocities that have taken place throughout the world the time of the holocaust stands out as being the darkest page in human history. The question then must be asked: What kind of people could have participated in the absolute barbarism of this time period? Those people involved in perpetrating the holocaust witnessed and participated firsthand in every aspect of this horrific time. From helping to amass the staggering number of deaths, to creating the horrific idea of concentration camps, and showing an absolute disregard for human decency, those of the Nazi party will go down in history as the greatest villains to ever walk the earth. And the Sun Still Dared to Shine, by Peter Scheponik, introduces the reader to how truly inhuman
Scheponik begins with an explanation of an edict “announcing death / to anyone aiding a Jew” (lines 2-3), which led to the delivery of a four year old girl to the Nazi guard. This beginning emphasizes the lengths the Nazi’s went to in finding as many of the Jewish people as they could. The poem continues with an optimistic turn as the guard “gave her an apple” (8), “asked her her name” (9), and “vowed to find / the mother who / abandoned her child” (10-12). The actions taken by the guard are portrayed as noble in order to increase the sudden brutality of what happens next. After talking with the girl the guard “fired the shot / into her head” (16-17). The sudden change in the guard’s behavior shows the true nature of the Nazi party. The fitting metaphor “as she dropped / to the earth / like fruit from the bough” (22-24) ends the poem. Scheponik’s likening of the girl to a piece of fruit harkens to the Nazi attitude concerning the Jewish people being less than
Once again the despicable actions of the Nazi guard are displayed in a way that shocks the reader into understanding how awful their action were.
Finally, in “Tainted Nature”, Scheponik depicts the absolute cruel psychology of the Nazi’s by laying bare an impossible choice. The poem opens with a description of a platform where people are being sorted “right, left / life, death” (5-6). The idea that the simple direction of weather you are told to go right or left holds your life in the balance is a chilling prospect both in the horror of the idea and the simplicity of the decision. In this setting Sheponik presents the reader with “A screaming child / hauled to the left” (9-10) as it “howls for its mother” (11). The image of a child in this setting further enhances the harsh reality of the scene. Scheponik’s describes a “grinning guard” (12) that gives the child’s mother the “chance to go / accompany her offspring / into the flames”. The very nature of a human must be absolutely perverted to smile at another human being while having them make a decision such as this